HONOLULU, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- A volcanic plume that formed the Hawaiian islands remains active and suggests new islands could continue to form for millions of years, scientists said.
The lava plume created 75 million years ago emanates from a mantle deep in the Earth and feeds magma to a chain of volcanoes that created and continues to create the islands, University of Hawaii geophysicist Cecily Wolfe said.
"We live in Hawaii and enjoy it, but we forget how special and unique it is," Wolfe told The Honolulu Star Bulletin in a story published Friday.
Three-dimensional computer images that "opened a window into the Earth" were constructed with data gathered from 73 seismometers placed on the sea floor, said Wolfe, principal investigator of the PLUME project, a decade in the making.
"We also had land seismometers at sites all over the islands, in schools, in a community college and even in peoples' back yards," Wolfe said.
The images allowed Wolfe and her team to form images nearly 930 miles below the sea -- about halfway through the Earth's mantle.
